SSX 3

The best snowboarding game ever? The saying "third time's the charm" has never been truer.

When one looks around at the freight train of games with 2s and 3s (or even X-2s) attached to the names in 2003, it seems this year could easily be dubbed "The Year of the Sequel." In many cases, we are getting more of the same from some publishers -- same concepts, but more levels, extra widgets, colored goatees, etc. But there are at least two solid arguments against this notion: 1.) If it's a sequel, than the first one was good enough to warrant making a make second; and 2.) This is perhaps the best year of sequels in the history of videogames.

So, with SSX 3, the third in EA's snowcross series, EA's Canadian development team took the notion of sequels very seriously. SSX Tricky was at various times in its development SSX 1.5, SSX DVD, and more, but it eventually became a fully-fledged game all its own. It was little confusing.

There should be no confusion this year. EA's "Let's wipe the slate clean" perspective is apparent in every powdery hill, in each of the mountain's three enormous peaks, in the characters' silky smooth animations, and in the gargantuan level of new tricks. Eveything is carefully crafted to ensure that in 2003, the self-effacing titled SSX 3 would speak volumes. And boy does it. The newly formed blister on my right thumb, that lovely sense of bewilderment at having spent too many nights awake late playing it, and my oh-so-patient wife are witnesses to them all.

OpenedSSX 3 is the kind of game you both know and one that, well, you really don't. If you've had the pleasure of playing the first two, then you know SSX was the original EA BIG title, a snowcross game bolstered with finely tuned tricks and displaying bewildering over-the-top level designs, essentially taking the snowboard mantle from the loveable 1080 Degrees Snowboarding as the snowboard champ. It's an arcade snowboarding game, offering an equal blend of trick and racing courses, and now, since everything is connected and open, there's great freedom to indulge in even more.

Head-to-Head Comparison! Don't know which version of SSX 3 to buy? We tell you in this point-by-point breakdown, which details the differences between the three consoles versions with side-by-side screenshots. But since when are still screens enough? How about a lengthy, high-res video comparison? Must see!

You'll notice that the open design idea so well presented in Grand Theft Auto III has filtered into SSX 3. From Amped (the first snowboarding game to offer this) to Jak II to next year's Spider-Man, they're all opening up. In SSX 3, it's not just cool to seamlessly explore the mountain because of the simple fact that you can, but it leads to greater possibilities. It permits you to whimsically, emotionally, or logically decide what to do and when to do it.

As opposed to creating yet another game with a loosely attached series of hills, new wacky characters and humanly impossible tricks, EA wanted unity. SSX 3 takes an entire geographic region (albeit a fictional one) and delivers a figurative and literal mountain. To give you a meaningful perspective of this surface area, there are three peaks, each with roughly five to 10 proper "courses," but every inch of the mountain can be slashed and shredded. All of the surfaces in between the courses are rideable; they're designed -- replete with trees and park benches to rail, and little jumps to search out -- as such. It's not something that smacks you in the face, like "Hey, check out my shiny new lipstick," it's more subtle. You absorb it, and, as you progress, the enormousness of the game makes its impression.

For example, players can race from the top to the bottom of the mountain in a single, pure and enfettered run. Granted, it takes about 30 gametime minutes to do so, but you CAN do it. The amazing thing is that if you're good (and maniacal) enough, you can actually create a single combo that lasts from the top to the bottom of the mountain (as executed by one crazy EA Canada tester). At which point you'll either explode or collapse. Either way, we're not telling.

If the singular mountain concept expands SSX 3, one new set of tricks unites it. Board presses, the snowboard equivalent to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater's manuals, combine tricks for huge combo tallies. Easily enacted by moving the right analog button forward or backward, players can link trick after trick in any course and, if they are so inclined, they can link a giant combo for one entire run, or like I said earlier, for the entire mountain.

In a fanciful ode to Star Trek's communicators, EA gives players a magical PDA to transport them from any spot on the mountain to any other locale. You can transport to the top of any opened peak, the beginning of any run, to a lodge; or you can even check messages from other racers. It makes getting from point A to point B very convenient, very quick. But instant transport to the top of Peak 3 doesn't happen right away of course. EA isn't stupid. It makes you work for those peaks.